Bhopal: Family’s financial constraints led Rajpal Singh Narvariya to follow in his father’s steps and continue farming as a means of employment. He lives in Ashoka Nagar, Madhya Pradesh with his family. He had grown up seeing his father struggle to make ends meet. So at a young age, he started helping his father out in the fields. That did not make him grow a distance from his studies; instead, his unrelenting curiosity led him to come up with almost 20 technological innovations. 

Rajpal’s startup

As a curious young man, with hopes of making things easy for his father, Rajpal would play around with various equipment after work, to create something innovative. He would try to imagine and sketch out his machines onto paper to assess if they would work efficiently. 

In 2011, in a nearby village, as part of the age-old practice, a farmer burnt the stubble in his field. The fire went up in massive flames causing the nearby field and houses to catch fire. The cattle were injured, and huge losses were reported in the production of the crops. 

This event prompted Rajpal to create something as a solution. He worked on his machines for two years and came up with a prototype of the combine harvester. 

Examination of the prototype

The prototype was not completely set to solve the problem, a lot of modifications were made to it to make it a success. After Rajpal did his job well, he wrote a letter to the National Innovation Foundation. He invited the experts to his village to examine his prototype. The experts scrutinized every bit of the machine and learned about Rajpal’s intention to help the farmers. 

His machine was found working smoothly and he was offered a sum of three lakh to make the prototype using the best equipment. Later, in the year 2017, he received the National Innovation Award from the President and also received the Jagjivan Ram Abhinav Kisan Awards in 2019. 

The machine sells at a low cost

The price of machines imported from a different country costs up to Rs 30 lakh. It is a huge sum that most farmers cannot afford. Rajpal’s creation has made it easier for farmers to invest in his machine as he builds them at a substantially low price. The machine can be used for harvesting, threshing, chaffing, and cleaning of fine grains. Furthermore, it can also be used to collect green fodder for the cattle. 

A series of innovations

Rajpal’s love for technology inspires him to continue creating such efficient machinery. So far, he has created an eco-friendly pro-tray-making machine, wheel sprayer, double-engine submersible machine, manual water lifting pump, hi-tech ripper and rope-making machine. 

These machines help the farmers to grow their crops and keep them organized masterfully and economically. Rajpal shares an example that some 20 years ago, the absence of electricity used to cause loss of production but now after his innovation of a submersible engine of double system, the issue has been improved. 

How much do the farmers save?

The worrisome factors for most farmers are their limited funds. They earn much less as compared to what they invest in their fields. Rajpal asserts that a farmer spends around Rs 3000 on average for harvesting one acre of crop. His tried and tested machines reduce the cost by almost 70 per cent of the original amount. 

Rajpal continues to be of help to all farmers and has taken an oath in making farming practices easier.